This was an enjoyable read. It's a well-written book, with only a few jarring moments where the author milks the villagers' narrowmindedness for comic relief. Less romantic and idealized than I had imagined, the story the slowness never descending into boredom. If you're familiar with the 1987 movie, then this book will hold enough material not included there to keep you interested: Jean's farming ploys and attempts at befriending the villagers occupy the main stage for a while, for instance, and plenty of the background characters in the movie get a more thorough treatment here, making the village and the surrounding beauty more real, more like genuine characters. And that's always a good thing. This book, too, feels much more like a finished story than the movie, which is very clearly a longish prologue to the second half: this is less obviously only the first part of a longer story. I would recommend reading the second half too, though, simply because Manon des sources is such a good old read. ( )